The weird and wonderful items found in Belfast International Airport lost property!
From Buckfast to flick knives, with a few garlic bulbs in between, have you ever wondered what hidden gems are sitting in the depths of a UK International Airport lost property? Well, thanks to content gathered by Belfast Live, we got a chance to hear what the Northern Irish city’s biggest airport had hiding away…
We’ve all done it; we’ve had something lurking in our hand luggage that might not quite meet the security specifications of an airport.
General Manager Rod Haskins had a few comments to make on this;
“There’s no trees on the plane, so I don’t know what they are pruning,” In response to someone trying to bring a tree saw through security in their hand luggage.
So, what does the passenger do when security find a prohibited item?
“They voluntarily give it up – it’s either that, or they don’t fly.”
This was just one of the more obscure items. More often than not duty free alcohol and large toiletry bottles are the main culprits that breach regulations.
“We have people turning up here with a litre of Vodka and we will say to them ‘you can’t take this through’.
“They’ll say ‘why’s that?’. In 2006 there was a liquids ban brought in, so that’s why.”
As a rule at the airport, alcohol is not stored unless the owner comes back to collect it. Instead it is poured down the drain much like many of the open bottles of perfume, cream, toothpaste and deodorant that are over the allowed 100ml size.
Some pretty bizarre items trying to sneak through the hand luggage checks, right? Well, it gets even more strange with the items that people try to conceal in their hold luggage…
Tools, baseball bats, wooden swords and golf clubs have also featured amongst the list of banned items that people have tried to sneak in their luggage! It’s easy to see how some people may misunderstand the rules when it comes to certain household items, but some real highlights include: replica firearms like Nerf guns or pellet guns, fully-equipped with a ‘hand grenade’-like container filled with metal pellets & gun belts, as well as live ammunition. Obviously something you don’t bring to an airport…
Does the airport keep hold of lost property?
“Anything we are storing, there’s a charge involved and some people don’t bother coming back for it,” he continued.
“You can’t take it with you, so it’s a choice of either throwing it in the bin, not flying or we will hold it for you – but it needs to be something of some value.
“Maybe it was their dad’s penknife and they forgot it was in the bag, so we try to help,” he said.
“If stuff is not reclaimed it will be sent to charity or recycled in some way.”
Even though some of the shelf-sitting items do sound quite hilarious; tins of tuna, high-end gooseberry jams & even an abandoned suitcase full of garlic cloves heading to Poland, a rise in passenger numbers at Belfast International Airport to 6 million people is another reason not to carry prohibited items through security; you’ll just be adding to the waiting time for not only you but everyone else…and no-one wants to be that guy.
It’s not unusual for people to pack something wild as a diversionary tactic, so security “have to check everything out”, Rod Haskins explained.
We’re not sure what he meant by a diversionary tactic, so we’ll leave that up to your imagination. Just don’t test the theory by taking it to the airport.
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